Cullen Hoback: 'We have to start by being more aware of what's going on.' Photograph: AFP

The stars have aligned for film-maker Cullen Hoback. With the ongoing, unfolding series of sensational stories about surveillance by US and UK security agencies came a new wave of energy and interest around his film Terms & Conditions May Apply, which began as an exploration of our attitudes to our data and digital privacy.

Hoback has found himself promoting a film that explores, in real depth, our relationships with corporations who build businesses around our data, their connection with government regulation and security access to data – and the near-universal ignorance of consumers. And in the context of the NSA stories, has found a widespread concern and appetite for change.

"Edward Snowden completely shifted the dialogue – we could not have had this conversation without him," Hoback told the Guardian. "Despite that, it's still politically cancerous for anybody to support him. We should thank him, and then investigate [US intelligence chiefs instead of asking where in the world Edward Snowden is."

Hoback expresses real concern for the fate of the whistleblower. He recalls a conversation at a rally with Daniel Ellsberg who, while a military analyst in the 1970s, leaked the "Pentagon Papers" documenting how the US public had been misled over the Vietnam war. "He told me that had he been in Edwards Snowden's position, he would have run too. It's the only thing he could do. Look at Bradley Manning – if you hang around they stick you in a box."

For Ellsberg, government attempts to undermine his reputation only served to reinforce his credibility and the value of his crime of conscience. "I've thought a lot about why the attitude [to Snowden] is not the same as towards Ellsberg, and a big part of it is political culture," said Hoback. "We've moved away from a time where something like the Pentagon Papers was enough to bring someone down, and have created a culture where whistleblowing is considered a crime.

At the time of the Pentagon Papers, there was a public mistrust of government and a desire to hold it to account. "The government also didn't have as much control of the media," said Hoback. "That's very controlled now, and they spend so much money trying to figure out how to shape the narrative. What would Nixon have done if he could have shaped the narrative in the same way?"

We, the internet-dependent public, have to move on from our romantic image of a wild west internet, says Hoback. "As with most major tech discoveries someone with money figures out a way to control it – we're seeing that now with alternative currencies, like Bitcoin. [Corporations] pervert the original intent to make money out of it, and as they found out how the world works they have to make certain relationships to achieve a certain scale. The philosophy changes."

Hoback funded Terms and Conditions May Apply with an anonymous investor, unconnected to the tech industry, who went through a slate of ideas until they settled on digital privacy. That was more than three years ago – a dream situation for a film-maker, and not a subject that Hoback had worked on before.

Now, with all the zeal of a convert, Hoback is effectively lobbying the nation – and Washington – for change. "Calling this a 'lobbying film' makes is sound very skewed, and we took sources from all sides of the political spectrum. This is education. We have to start by being more aware of what's going on."

"Such a culture of fear has been built in America that it is somehow unpatriotic to raise this privacy issue. But this is freedom of speech. This is one of the foundations of our country."

•Terms & Conditions May Apply is being screened to staffers and Congressmen in Washington DC later this month. The film is currently available internationally through iTunes.